Doctors of the Isfara central city hospital assess the condition of Tajik border guard, who was wounded in the latest shootout along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border as stable, but serious
“Currently, the border guard is on the mend. He started talking, his condition, however, is still assessed as stable but serious,” an official source within the Isfara central city hospital told Asia-Plus in an interview Monday afternoon.
According to him, the border guard, who was identified as a 20-year-old resident of the city of Tursunzoda, was taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds to his shoulder and neck.
Recall, three servicemen, one Tajik border guard and two Kyrgyz border guards, were wounded in the latest gunfire that broke out along the contested segment of the volatile Tajik-Kyrgyz border at noon of June 3 and lasted until 1:15 pm Tajik time the same day. As usual, each side blames the other for starting the shooting.
A source within Vorukh jamoat told Asia-Plus that the shootout occurred in the Puli Oftobru area, some 10 kilometers of the center of Vorukh jamoat (an exclave surrounded by Kyrgyzstan that forms part of the city of Isfara in Tajikistan’s northern Sughd province).
According to him, Kyrgyz border guards illegally crossed into disputed area controlled by the Tajik border guards. “The Kyrgyz border guards were required to leave the territory, but they ignored this demand,” said the source. “A verbal skirmish that began between the border guards escalated into a shootout.”
“As a result of the gunfire, one Tajik border guard was wounded. He was taken to the Isfara central city hospital,” the source added.
Meanwhile, Kyrgyz media reports blamed Tajik border guards for starting the shooting.
24.kg, citing a statement from the Kyrgyz border service, reported on June 3 that Kyrgyz border guards officers had to open fire after Tajik border guards shot at the Kyrgyz side, including using a mortar launcher, in response to being ordered to withdraw from Kyrgyz territory that they allegedly entered in the Bulak-Bashy district of the southern Batken region.
Kyrgyz media reports said two Kyrgyz border guards had been wounded in the gunfire, adding that one of them was in serious condition
24.kg reported on June 4 that President Sadyr Japarov visited the wounded border guards, talked to them, learned about their state of health and wished them a speedy recovery.
In a statement released on June 4, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan accused Kyrgyz border guards of illegal and deliberate entry into the country. Tajik MFA also accused “the Kyrgyz side of deliberate and time-bound provocation.”
It is to be noted that it is the first official statement made by the Tajik authorities during the last incidents along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border.
Tajikistan’s common border with Kyrgyzstan, which is 970 kilometers in length, has been the scene of unrest repeatedly since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It has been difficult to demarcate the Kyrgyz-Tajik border because over the course of some 100 years Soviet mapmakers drew and redrew the Kyrgyz-Tajik border, incorporating land that had traditionally belonged to one people in the territory of the other Soviet republic. Exclaves appeared and temporary land use agreements were signed.
All of this survived the collapse of the Soviet Union and people in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have various Soviet-era maps they use to justify their claim to specific areas along the border.
Border talks between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan began in 2002. The border delineation problem has led to conflicts between rival ethnic communities.
To-date, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have held more than 170 meetings and negotiations on delimitation and demarcation of the common border.
Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov said in an exclusive interview with Kabar news agency on April 25 that the parties have agreed on 600 kilometers [of the mutual border] and they have another 300 kilometers left to delimit and demarcate.
